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Kinchindjinga mountain.
(Altitude 28,150 feet. The altitude of the Mount Everest the highest mountain of the world, is
29,000 feet.)
On the way, we camped on the side of a pretty lake in the desolate valley of Lonak, not far
from the highest pass in the world: the Jongson pass (about 24,000 feet high) where the
frontiers of Tibet, Nepal and Sikkim meet.
We spent a few days near the gigantic moraines from which spring the snow-covered
peaks of the Kinchindjinga. Then Sidkeong tulku left me to return to Gangtok with his
retinue.
He made fun of my love for high solitary places which led me to continue my journey
with the young Yongden and a few servants. I can see him, even now. This time he was
not dressed as a genie of the
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Arabian Nights, but in the kit of a Western alpinist. Before disappearing behind a rocky
spur, he turned back toward me waving his hat and crying from far off:
" Come back soon. Don't stay away too long! "
I never saw him again. He died mysteriously a few months later, while I was stopping at
Lachen.
The Lonak valley was too near Tibet for me to possibly resist climbing one of the passes
leading to that country. The Nago pass (over 18,000 feet) was the most easily accessible.
The weather was fair but cloudy and a little snow fell as we were starting.
The landscape, viewed from the top of the pass, did not resemble that which I had seen
two years earlier, so gloriously luminous. Now the twilight cast a purple greyish veil over
WITH MYSTICS AND MAGICIANS IN TIBET: CHAPTER II: A GUEST OF THE LAMAS
the immense tableland extending, majestically void, from the foot of the mountain toward
other ranges standing out indistinctly in the distance. But softly enshrouded in the first
evening's shadows the forbidden solitudes looked still more mysterious and irresistibly
attractive.
I should have been content to wander aimlessly across this extraordinary region, but I had
a goal. Before leaving Gangtok one of the native officials had called my attention to the
monastery of Chörten Nyima.
"The monasteries you have seen in Sikkim are very different from those of Tibet," he had
told me. "Since you cannot travel freely in Tibet, go at least to see Chörten Nyima.
Though this gompa is very small, you will get some idea of a true Tibetan monastery."
So I was going to Chörten Nyima.
The monastic habitations of that place fully justified the name gompa (a dwelling in the
solitude) given, in Tibetan language, to monasteries. It is impossible to fancy any more
solitary site. The region in which the monks' houses have been built is not only
uninhabited but the high altitude makes a desert of it.
Sandy cliffs curiously carved by erosions, a large valley ascending toward a mountain
lake, high snowy peaks, a limpid brook on a bed of mauve, greyish green or rosy coloured
pebbles formed around the
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gompa an impassable, wholly mineral scenery from which emanated a serenity beyond
expression.
Legends and prodigies are naturally in their right place in such a setting. They are not
lacking at Chörten Nyima. This very name, which means "Sun shrine," was derived from
a wonder. Once upon a time a Chörten containing precious relics was miraculously
transported through the air, on a ray of sun from India to that spot.
In ancient traditions it is related that Padmasambhâva the apostle of Tibet has hidden in
the vicinity of Chörten Nyima a number of manuscripts regarding mystic doctrines which
he thought it was premature, to disclose, for in the eighth century, when Padmasambhâva
visited Tibet, Tibetans possessed no intellectual culture. This master foresaw that long
after he had left this world, lamas, predestined by their former lives, would bring these
writings to light again. Several works are said to have been found in this region and some
lamas are still hunting to discover others.
WITH MYSTICS AND MAGICIANS IN TIBET: CHAPTER II: A GUEST OF THE LAMAS
According to Tibetans, one hundred and eight chörtens and one hundred and eight springs
exist round about Chörten Nyima. All of them are not visible. A large number can only be
seen by those whose mind is particularly pure. Wishes made beside these springs, after
one has placed an offering in the water at the very spot where it wells up out of the earth,
cannot help being fulfilled.
Chöd do (stone offerings) either standing up or piled in the shape of cairns bristle all over
the country, and when erected by pious pilgrims to honour Padmasambhâva, these
primitive monuments are believed to be indestructible.
The monastery, which must at one time have been somewhat important, is falling in ruins.
As in many other places in Tibet, we may see here a result of the destitution of the ancient
sects which have not followed the reforms of Tsong Khapa, whose disciples, nowadays,
form the state clergy. I found only four nuns at Chörten Nyima who belonged to the
Nyingma sect (" ancient sect," the
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oldest of the " red caps "). They lived as celibates but without having been fully ordained
and did not wear monastic robes.
Numerous examples of strange contrasts are to be seen in Tibet, but what most astonished
me was the tranquil courage of the womenfolk. Very few Western women would dare to
live in the desert, in groups of four or five or sometimes quite alone. Few would dare
under such conditions to undertake journeys that last for months or even years, through
solitary mountain regions infested by wild beasts and brigands.
This shows the singular character of Tibetan women. They do not ignore these real
dangers and they add to them by imagining legions of evil spirits taking on thousands of
strange forms, even that of a demoniacal plant which grows on the edge of precipices,
seizes hold of travellers with its thorny branches and drags them into the abyss.
In spite of these many reasons for staying safely in their native villages, one finds here and
there in Tibet, communities of less than a dozen nuns, living in isolated convents situated
at a great height, some of them blocked in by the snow for more than half of the year.
Other women live as hermits in caves, and many women pilgrims travel, alone, across the
immense territory of Tibet carrying their scanty luggage on their backs.
Visiting the Lhakhangs (houses of the gods, where their images are placed) still existing
among the ruined buildings of the monastery, I found a room containing a collection of
WITH MYSTICS AND MAGICIANS IN TIBET: CHAPTER II: A GUEST OF THE LAMAS
small images made of coloured clay and representing the fantastic beings which surround
the "spirits" of the dead as they cross the Bardo. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]